Hello I am the proud owner of beautiful Ruby, my 22 month old light red chow girl, who is now recovering from knee surgery three weeks ago. (See the "My baby is a lemon" post on this forum). She had her slipped kneecap, or patella, replaced back on her knee and pinned and the ligaments holding it in place were shortened. The post op instructions were rather vague, and although I've asked the surgeon a few questions, he just says "no stairs and, except for brief walks to relieve herself, keep her quiet for six more weeks".

I am concerned that if she has almost no exercise and then in six weeks I take her to my dog park to play with her friends, she will re-injure her knee. Has anyone been through this with a young dog? I live in a flat urban neighborhood with sidewalks so it is easy for me to walk her up and down the street without involving either stairs or hills. I don't want to injure her by taking her on brief 5 or 10 minute walks, but I think it will strengthen her knee and help relieve her boredom. She is an extrovert and loves tomeet and greet any person or dog we see. Any advice?Ruth B.

my 3 yr old male chow tore his ACL yesterday and TPLO surgery has been recommended. What I've been seeing is that post surgery they are supposed to stay calm, confined 10 x 10 and be on leash ony for approx 4 months. Your surgery is probably less aggressive but I think I would not let her loose for rough play anytime before 2 - months. Good luck and good healing!

Sukie tore her cruciate ligaments in both knees.I elected for the surgery where they add strengthening reinforcement to replace the ligament rather than the TPLO surgery. I was lucky to find an expert vet who had performed the surgery on both humans and dogs.Sukie was able to regain use of the leg near immediately after surgery. So the trick was to limit her activity afterwards. For about 2 weeks we kept weight off the legs with limited walks and activity.For the next 6 weeks we increased activity until she was back to normal routine.A key part of her recovery was finding a local equine therapy pool that let dogs also swim. She was able to very effectively gain strength without impact stress.Check my other post in the "TPLO surgery for torn knee CCL with severe dysplasia ????" topic for details and a picture.